Customer Reviews

Necronomicon: Book of the Dead [Import]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Simply lots of fun to watch, don't know why it has not received better ratings. Guess some people expected more, I got what I expected: A good horror movie I would like to have on DVD.

Ok, i feel terrible that so many people give this movie such bad reviews. In all seriousness it is poorly acted and the special effects are pretty lame. But isn't that the point with horror. Horror is all about the philosophical ideas it presents. Lets face it philosophy isn't visual. The movie is thoroughly entertaining on par with Bad Taste and Dead Alive. I would also like to add that despite the criticisms that this is in no way related to any Lovecraftian idea I have to wonder if people actually watched the movie. I love the stories of Lovecraft but they surely don't translate well visually because they are so philosophically based. This movie does well to take those same ideas and potently visualize them. The movie is about as weird and akward as Lovecraft himself was. Don't expect to be terrified but expect to laugh and maybe sleep with a light on for a few nights.

I love H.P Lovecraft. I like the idea of a movie based on the "dark and eldritch book" which he dreamed up. I love this movie. Sure its low budget and at best "loosely" based on anything Lovecraft. BUT what it doesnt do for literary fans it does for entertainment. Did you like "Bad Taste" by the guy that did lord of the rings? then this is for you. the quotes from the thing are well worth it "Sarah, they took my mind, they need us..... to breed" was all it took to capture my heart. its a bad film, but its a great bad film/

I don't know why everyone is complaining so much about this film. It is what it is, a cheesy, low budget B horror flick, and for what it is it's a fun movie. So don't expect great acting or special effects. If you like B horror and Lovecraft get it. If you want a really good Lovecraftian movie that's true to Lovecraft's vision (within budget restrictions ;P) go get Stuart Gordon's Dagon or Dreams in the Witch House. They're the closest thing to a 'good' Lovecraft movie ever made.

P.S. - Hopefully Guillermo Del Toro's At the Mountains of Madness, due to come out 2010, will finally give us a honestly good Lovecraft film.

Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (Brian Yuzna et al., 1993)

Brian Yuzna's anthology flick of Lovecraft-themed (it would be abusing the word to call them "adapted") tales is as uneven as its stable of directors would have you believe. Yuzna himself directs both the wraparound sections, which feature Jeffrey Combs as the hapless Lovecraft, who spends a day at the library studying the Necronmicon and writing tales based on what he reads there. He also directs the final segment, which is pure Z-grade Yuzna; if you like his movies, then you should have no problem with the basement-budget special effects and the inept acting (surprising, given that the two main actors in Yuzna's segment are Signy Coleman and Obba Babatunde, both relatively early in their careers). Meanwhile, Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf) directs the first segment, the strongest of the three. It's a tale of an aristocrat (Bruce Payne) who inherits a house with something nasty living in the basement. Lovecraftian indeed, and seems to draw inspiration from five or six different stories.

The middle piece should have been brilliant. It's based on my favorite Lovecraft story, "Cool Air", and is directed by Kaneko Shusuke (currently enjoying a great deal of fame with the live-action Death Note franchise). The problem is Brent Friedman's script, which is more painful here than in the rest of the movie. But then, what do you expect from a guy whose greatest achievement to date has been the script for Infested, the Carlton-vs.-the-Giant-Ticks movie?

Well, it could have been worse, I guess. Certainly not the worst movie I've seen this week, but if you're a Lovecraft purist, avoid it like the plague. **

Sitting down to watch "Necronomicon: Book of the Dead" I wasn't expecting it to be a great movie; in fact, I wasn't expecting it to be even a good movie, however, "Necronomicon" didn't even manage to achieve my low expectations of it. "Necronomicon" is divided into three separate stories based on or inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's macabre short stories; each directed by a different director and each as cheesy with terrible acting as the next. The special effects were absolutely horrifically and catastrophically bad. Most of the monsters looked just like they are: men in large rubber suits. But this is not Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space, which provided at least a fair amount of entertainment and was worth watching repeatedly.
The movie starts out with H. P. Lovecraft (played by Jeffrey Combs) entering a library of the occult guarded over by a group of creatures disguised as human beings. Through cunningly stealing the keys out from under one of the inhuman guardian's nose, Lovecraft sneaks into a room where he finds the Necronomicon, the most evil and unholy tome of forbidden lore ever written. There he reads the three stories that make up the entire film.
The first film is about a woman who has inherited a large mansion with a history of dark events. This one was probably the second worst story in the trio, however, there is one long glimpse of a super cheesy looking Cthulu at the end of it.
The second film is the worst of the three. Its about a scientist who has discovered through reading the "Necronomicon" how to preserve his life eternally by injecting himself with a syringe full of cerebral spinal fluid and with the use of cryptobiology.
The final film was probably the only one worth watching and only for comedic purposes. Its about two cops fallen in love with one another who are chasing after "The Butcher," apparently, a serial killer who works for aliens. This last story doesn't make any sense at all and quickly degenerates into a surreal, campy, and plotless burlesque with much talentless acting.
Overall, "Necronomicon" does no service to one of the greatest horror authors that ever lived and should only be viewed by die hard fans of Lovecraft's wonderful fiction.